This is so boring. Jan Troell is over eighty years old, and I think he’s starting to lose his touch. I’m annoyed from the start til the end by the worthless timing – in photo, editing and the lines. Indeed, Jan himself is listed as cinematographer, editor and scriptwriter – besides director. They put a Dane to play in Swedish. You see Jesper Christensen struggling with the language, and he does what he can but it’s useless when you have to wait for every line. Though it’s a pleasure to see Pernilla August already again, as jew mistress of her husband’s friend and colleague. The movie depicts Torgny Segerstedt, editor in chief at a Gothenburg newspaper and sworn enemy of Adolf Hitler from the Nazi seizure of power to his own death shortly before the end of the war. And a notorious adulterer. Another useless man who treats his wife and children like crap and puts all his energy on dogs, work and a mistress. And is later acclaimed for taking out his personal frustration on those who later lost the war. But the problem with the film is of course not the person it portrays, but how it does it. In addition, both the title and the narrative actually complicates the picture of the main character. But there’s still not much of complication – merely depiction. A little Bergmanesque with dead people coming back in dreams, blaming him for his bad sides. Such things are interesting, but doesn’t weigh up the boredom. Michael Haneke (direcor of The White Ribbon and the recent Amour) once said that he mostly just listens to the actors while filming. If Jan Troell done so, this movie had never happened.